Hide and Seek
by speaks
Summary: Beast Boy and Raven ditch out on the annual tradition of decorating the tower for Halloween to... wait, what? They said they were playing hide and seek? That doesn't sound right. That's ridiculous, they couldn't possibly be playing hide and seek. Could they?
1. ready or not

This became so much longer than I meant it to be haha. It was gonna be a one shot but it ended up being 17 PAGES so I split it in half. It reads like one long story though. Second half will be up on October 1st. Oddly fitting, since the story actually takes place on October 1st! Enjoy

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[ready or not...]

* * *

Deep in the darkest depths of the basement, with only the eerie light of her eyes to guide her, Starfire at last unearthed the enormous cardboard box she'd been looking for. She slung it over one shoulder and zoomed all the way back upstairs, giddy with excitement.

"It is the day of October the first!" she declared magnanimously, upending all the contents of her prized box onto the dining room table without preamble. "Please, where is Beast Boy? It's time to decorate!"

Robin fished a rubber bat out of his cheerios and pushed the bowl away. "Sorry, Star. He's not home."

All of the excitement that had her bouncing in the air went rushing out; her slippers touched the ground as she deflated. "But it is tradition," she insisted, sounding a bit like a lost child. "Raven, then," she decided, jumping back on the enthusiasm express. "She has always enjoyed the annual dressing of the common area in freakish adornments such as crows and spiders. She is awake already, yes?"

After a brief hesitation, Robin reached for his glass of juice, only to realize that it too had been contaminated with halloween decor. He brought the glass close to his mask and frowned at the plastic spider ring hidden in the pulp at the bottom. "Raven's actually gone as well."

At this point, Star drooped into the seat next to Robin.

"But the first morning of October has always been the time that we decorate the tower for Halloween." She grew cross. "What activities could be so important that they interfere with tradition?"

Robin looked away pointedly to fight between several facial expressions. Amusement, pity, confusion, amusement again, frustration, and then nothing. He turned back to Starfire with a carefully blank face. "Beast Boy said they were playing hide and seek."

Starfire sighed, she herself fighting between amusement and disappointment at the news. "Again?"

Cyborg cleared his throat in the kitchen and both Robin and Star jumped. They looked over to see him stirring a giant bowl of pancake batter, little flecks of it splatting onto his arms and chest. "Come off it," he laughed. "They're on a date! You really think they're playing _hide and seek?"_ He rolled his eyes and tossed the bowl on the counter to begin his perilous search through the poorly stacked cupboards for a clean pan.

Starfire pressed her hands over her mouth and suppressed a manic giggle as Cyborg unleashed an avalanche of tupperware lids on himself, then turned back to Robin with a conspiratorial glint in her eye. "Do you think Cyborg is correct? I always thought it strange that Raven so readily indulges the hiding and seeking when Beast Boy asks. She never plays any other game he begs of her."

Robin stood with his inedible breakfast and went to the sink to gift it all to the JC sewers. He washed it all down and rinsed the pulp off the plastic ring.

"I dunno guys. Beast Boy and Raven? You really think they'd...?" He pondered it seriously for a long moment, toying with the tired idea that those two were secretly dating behind everyone's backs, then broke off laughing. He'd considered it before but there was just no way. They'd kill each other. "No way. There's a better chance that they're _actually_ playing hide and seek than secretly dating. He pressed the ring into Star's open palm and Cyborg busted out laughing again.

"Mark my words. They are not, I repeat, _not_ playing hide and seek."

.

.

The timer ticked past the ten minute mark, and Beast Boy leapt to his feet. Anticipation and determination surged through his bones like lightning. It was an intoxicating feeling he would never dare try to describe to any of his friends; it unsettled him in an abstract way but he loved it blindly. The sound of the surf hitting the island rocks wafted up from far below and he took this crisp, sunny moment to let everything else fall away, all the distractions of day-to-day life, and then squared his shoulders. Man, he needed this. He wanted it, the way a man lost in a desert would want a root beer float.

He sucked in a breath so deep it dizzied him, then sent off a quick text and stowed his phone.

 _Ready or not, here_ _I come!_

 _._

 _._

"Oh, hello!" A lone cashier almost spilled the old pot of coffee she was emptying when Raven ducked into the corner store. Her nametag said "MEL :)" and seemed to have some sort of... glitter. On it. On purpose. Raven wrinkled her nose. "Fancy seeing you here," Mel giggled nervously, and messed with her blond fishtail braid as Raven went straight to the register, summoning a can of green tea and a can of cola from the wall fridge as she went.

"Just these."

When Raven pulled out her wallet, Mel went into a fit. "Nonsense, you don't pay here!" She winked conspicuously and pressed a finger to her lips in a ' _shh'_ gesture.

Raven sighed; it was always tough to refuse preferential treatment. She had nothing against free stuff. But alas, Robin's orders… "Company policy, or your policy?" she asked dryly. The girl clammed up and went beet red, which made Raven crack the tiniest of smiles. "Just take my money." Raven slid the wallet across the counter and let the girl pull out the tangle of bills while she herself rifled through the stack of ten cent postcards and the shelf of candy. "Oh, and this." She passed over a pack of Orbit mint gum on a whim, already unraveling a single piece of it.

When she turned to go with her loot, the cashier called out, "Hey, wait, you forgot your soda!"

Cracking the green tea tab, Raven shouldered the door open. "That one's for Beast Boy." He would need the energy for the goose chase she was going to be leading him on today. (Dare she admit that this was actually kind of fun for her?)

Mel's face went blank, and she looked behind her, fully expecting to see a green lizard on the wall of cigarettes and tobacco. Nope. Just the cigarettes and tobacco.

Raven rolled her eyes and shoved the pack of gum into the back pocket of her jean shorts. "No," (dummy) "he'll be here soon. And… when he asks how long it's been since I was here, tell him that's cheating." She blew a bubble and the glass door clicked shut.

.

.

"How long ago was she here?" Beast Boy thumbed through the postcards, lingering on one that pictured a rainy purple day on an Irish shoreline. This one he pulled out. It had more of her scent on it than the rest, which amused him greatly. It was so… _romantic_. So _not_ Raven. Which was hilarious! "What?" he suddenly looked up.

The cashier blinked at him, struggling to quell a blush. "I said," she repeated, "Raven said that was cheating."

He pulled a face at the dreamy coast of Ireland. Whatever! They'd never actually _agreed_ on that rule.

"She did leave this soda for you though." Still confused, Mel pulled a perspiring can of coca-cola from behind the register and set it in front of Beast Boy. She'd often dreamed of meeting one of the city's famous heroes, but hadn't considered that it might be so confusing an encounter that she'd forget to ask them to sign her Official Titans Merch wallet. "Did you want that too?"

Beast Boy paused in his chugging of the soda, following her line of sight to the postcard in his hand. "What, this? Uhh yeah, sure." He laughed. Raven was gonna be so pissed that he knew which one she'd liked the most. "Why not. How much?"

.

.

Raven finished flattening her chewed gum on a lamp post and gave an ogling mailman the stinkeye through his open door. "What are you looking at?" The mailman swiftly faced forward, and when the light turned green and he sped away.

She shook the half-empty Orbit pack, counted the remaining sticks, then pulled out another to begin chewing. This was gross, and if it wasn't such a diabolical idea she'd never have stooped so low. But he'd found her so _quickly_ last time.

Just remembering it made the construction signs to her left quake, and she picked up her pace with a wary glance over her shoulder. Without a plan, she didn't have long. A ten minute head start was virtually nothing when she wasn't allowed to use any form of teleportation or flight. She knew the whole point of this ridiculous exercise was to essentially lose, but it didn't mean she had to lose without a fight.

Time check: _44 minutes elapsed._

Okay, so at the very least she'd already lasted longer than the previous attempt. This time she bit her lip remembering that failure of a day, and the traffic cones lining the closed street blew into the open sewer as she passed them one by one. She'd barely even made it into the city, and when he'd closed in so prematurely she'd thought his gloating would never end. But instead when he caught her he'd seemed almost disappointed. Closing her eyes to the memory, she pulled out her freshly chewed gum and dropped it onto the sidewalk next to a hundred similar stains.

Her record was 2 hours and 16 minutes. She was going to beat that this time if she had to go to the moon and back.

Stopping in her tracks, she turned another stick of gum into paste and then gently levitated it across the street toward a stop sign.

.

.

Huh. That was weird.

The green German Shepherd sat back on its haunches, contemplating the abrupt end of the trail he'd been following down the gated off sidewalk of a street under heavy construction. One moment there'd been a distinct impression of her on the sidewalk, the next, nothing. It ended right at the corner where the construction stopped. He transformed back to scratch his head in confusion. Had she cheated? Maybe she'd flown across the street or something. No, she wouldn't have, would she? She was always digging at him for for his so-called cheating. But what else could explain the end of the tracks?

With nothing else to go on, the Shepherd wandered across the street, aimlessly sniffing about, until… Bingo! He barked at the stop sign on the other side, startling a passing primly dressed couple, causing the man to drop the shopping bags he was saddled with. Beast Boy transformed back to meekly apologize and then leaned in triumphantly to inspect the little piece of gum stuck to the pole of the stop sign. So she hadn't covered _all_ her tracks.

It wasn't until he'd sniffed out the next telltale piece of gum a few minutes later and half a block away that he began to have doubts about his amazing skills of detection. Yeah it was hers, but where were the rest of the tracks? The only thing that smelled like her on the entire street was this one stupid piece of gum.

And why was she chewing so much gum anyway? This was the eighth one he'd found! Nothing added up. There was trickery brewing here.

Time check: _59 minutes elapsed._

Raven would call it cheating, but he minimized the stopwatch on his phone and pulled up Google Maps. He was curious which direction they were heading. (Last time he'd correctly guessed where Raven was going, and had beat her there and ended the game before it even began. The look on her face! Outsmarted by Beast Boy. He might have even _impressed_ her with that stunt. Imagine that: Beast Boy, impressing Raven! Would it ever happen again in the history of humanity? He kinda hoped so...) So he scanned and scanned the buildings ahead of him on the map, searching for something that Raven would like to do while she killed time. A library or antique shop or something… No, wait. Wait. That was it!

With a smile plastered to his face he took off running. There was an arcade two blocks ahead! That was the absolute last place he'd look for her, so maybe, just maybe, that was where she went! Holy hell, somebody give him an award. Give him a trophy orㅡ

He screeched to a halt.

 _Crud_.

There were only two rules for Raven. (A) No flying. (B) No teleporting. (Or else he'd lose the scent, and then what was the point?). He'd never told her she couldn't use her powers on objects. It had never occurred to him that she could somehow use that against him in this game of theirs. But now, as he looked at the latest piece of gum lying on the sidewalk like it was laughing at him, he thought of one glaring way that Raven could have thwarted him while still following all the rules.

"Shit on a stick!" he exclaimed, earning an indignant look from the exact same couple he'd startled before, who were now walking into a laundromat.

But he was already pulling his phone back out to consult the map again, desperate to outsmart her. What did he have to prove? He didn't know but that sure as heck wasn't slowing him down! Desperately he retraced his own route on foot and at the same time retraced it with his eyes on the map. He'd come south down Festival Avenue, cutting straight through the construction. If his hunch was correct, then Raven had thrown him off with the gum and had in fact turned around at that corner to retrace her own steps and taken a different route. Masking her scent with her own scent. The sly cat. He shook his head in disbelief. But to where? And where did she break off from the path?

He could keep going and find the point of her divergence via Nose. But he wasn't trying to follow in her footsteps her all day, he was trying to _find_ her. He had to cut her off! Where, where, whereㅡoh. Huh. Huhhh. Now that was an interesting idea.

Zooming in on the library on Main, due just northeast of here, Beast Boy wondered if Raven was really cocky enough to pull the same stunt twice. He snorted to himself. Who was he kidding, of course she was!

But was he really cocky enough to abandon the solid trail he had on a hunch and risk losing the game altogether? Hilarious. Of course he was!

A green falcon cawed and went sailing across the road toward Main Street.

.

.

From up on the outcropped canopy of an Urban Outfitters, Raven watched a green German Shepherd hustle by due south on the sidewalk below, following its nose. Immediately after he'd passed she dropped down onto the sidewalk, startling a neatly trimmed couple emerging from the store behind her. She watched Beast Boy for a moment more until the couple obscured him from view, then took off running across the street.

This should buy her a solid block of time. He'd follow her track to its end, then he'd hopefully follow the gum for a few blocks more before growing suspicious. Even then, it should take him awhile to figure out how she'd duped him. Even after that he'd have to relocate her trail and follow it. All in all she estimated she'd gained (roughly) a thirty minute cushion with this little trick of hers. That meant ten minutes to pause for tea at the library cafe was certainly within reason. So that is where she was headed.

Besides, the library was where he'd found her last time. She far was too smart to make the same mistake twice, and Beast Boy knew that, so that meant it was safe to go there because he'd never, ever look there. Really, she had to hand it to herself. She may just beat her record today after all.

The ground floor of the three-story city library was filled as usual with the susurrus of turning pages and hushed whispers, and as always it filled her with a sense of tranquility that was hard to find elsewhere. She beelined for the little cafe counter in the back.

"Oh, hello Raven! My beauty, my love." The tall Caribbean man grinned at her toothily from behind the espresso machine, his accent as thick as ever. The apron was comically small on his oversized body. "Have not seen you for long time!"

Raven fought a surge of embarrassment. Amani had been working here as long as she'd been coming in, and had been there to witness the pitiful end to the last round of hide and seek. She hadn't come in since.

Amani just smiled, his flawless teeth dangerously white, not picking up on her embarrassment even a smidge. "You would like your chai? Or perhaps to try the special of the day?" He passed off the cup he was working on to a waiting student, and leaned toward Raven on the counter. "We have the cajamarca in from Peru, fresh as a baby, direct from distributor. It is coffee instead of tea but my Raven will love it."

Raven found herself nodding. "Alright, I'll take that. Thanks Amani."

She amused herself consulting the map of different countries the cafe imported their coffee from, which was painted on the countertop, wondering how long it'd take Beast Boy to find her if she headed for Peru while Amani whistled and messed with out-of-sight equipment . He'd just barely passed over her coffee when she heard, at the top of someone's lungs, bringing the entire library to a dubious silence, "AHA!"

Raven jolted, spilling her black coffee all over the list of countries. Please, no. She turned. Yep. It was him. He was sauntering toward her with a subdued but smug expression, and something in her just snapped. She wasn't going down like this again.

"Whaㅡhey!" He took off after her as she set out at a dead sprint toward the emergency exit. He'd already found her. Game over. Right? "You can't do that!" She couldn't do that. Could she?

Raven burst into the back parking lot, shielding her eyes against the still-rising sun.

Time check: _1 hour 14 minutes._

She took off toward the road, heading in the direction of the beach. If she could make it to the boardwalk she might be able to lose him in the morning crowd. It was a Monday, so it wouldn't be too busy, but she still might manage it. But would she get there before he caught up?

At the door, Beast Boy dug a finger in his ear and squinted at the cloudless sapphire sky. That emergency exit alarm was killing his eardrums and messing with his senses. But he caught sight of her at the edge of the parking lot and immediately gave chase. He could shift into a cheetah or something and catch her in a second, but it seemed she was still following the rules, so he felt he should give her a fair shot. Human he was, then, as he pursued her down Main toward the boardwalk and the pier. Several times he lost sight of her but always he caught on again, and on several occasions it seemed she was slowing down. But by the time they'd reached the boardwalk and she began to cut through it, he was still far behind. He was beginning to pant.

As she disappeared over the edge of a driftwood stairway that led down to the empty beach, he paused to lean on a parking sign. Jeez, now he understood how she was able to spend so much time on the treadmill during morning workout sessions. He, on the other hand, was dying. How did humans even _cope_ with having only two legs? It was so inefficient. This was killing him!

As he looked over the edge and saw her disappear into the patchwork of wooden beams under the pier, he decided this was a matter of pride. Screw these dumb ham legs.

A falcon again, he nosedived straight off the cliffside toward the shadowed area of sand and went straight through the network of support beams. He curved a sharp left and then fluttered madly to a stop and transformed back directly in her path. Trapped, she stumbled in the sand and collided with his chest. With a huff she looked up at him in defeat, reaching up to throw back the hoodie of her ghost-patterned sweatshirt.

Beast Boy fist pumped the air and opened his mouth to blurt something like _haha I win,_ but instead he felt that familiar hollowness swallowing his victory, that gnawing sensation. The excitement was gone, replaced once more by that dull dull antsy twitchy craving. He should be feeling the sweeping sensation of triumph, but instead felt nothing at all. Well. This sucked.

He deflated and ran one hand tiredly through his windswept hair and hit her with a pointed look. "This isn't working, Rae."

She switched immediately from sore loser to confused friend. "What do you mean? I thought this was what you wanted. I thought it was helping."

"I did! I mean it was. I mean, I don't know. It's just not. It's not working anymore." He groaned and leaned on a nearby wooden beam, frowning at the skeletons of barnacles mixed in with the rust.

Raven's instinct was also to frown, but she carefully pushed the feeling aside. This was even worse than last time. Disappointment was all over his face and she had to wonder, "Did I do something wrong?"

"What? No!" He waved his hands frantically, searching for the right words to convey his disappointment. "It's got nothing to do with you, it's just me. This seemed like a good idea when you first thought of it but it's just not getting rid of that… feeling." He could feel himself turning red. He didn't like talking about this with her; he preferred pretending like they were just playing a game as opposed to exercising illicit urges from his system. "The first few times it did kinda help but now it's just not enough."

Sighing deeply, Raven tucked her hands in her hoodie pocket, looking out toward the sea. "I'm sorry. I thought this was the answer to the problem."

When she'd caught him chasing pigeons in the park one day last summer, he'd reluctantly confided in her that he was sometimes plagued by the insatiable need to hunt. She hadn't been all that surprised, but she did surprise herself by thinking up a game that would allow him to boil off some of that excess carnivorous energy without resorting to pigeon-chasing in public areas. Truly she'd thought it was a brilliant solution. But apparently not.

"It was a good idea," he softened, disliking the sad look on her face. She'd really been trying to help him, he understood that, and appreciated it all the more because it was Raven and any kind gesture from her meant a thousand words. "It's just that… chasing something doesn't really quell the desire, y'know?" He chuckled self-consciously, tugging at the collar of his t-shirt. He'd accepted this a few games ago but had kept it going because it was so much fun and it was an excuse to hang out with her and he was still hoping it would work. But... "It actually makes it worse. Chasing something and never eating it, it's like the opposite of hunting. It only makes me want to hunt more."

A smirk came over Raven then as she saw through his words to the heart of the problem. She couldn't help but poke fun though, just a smidge. He was always poking fun at her. Amusement simmered just under the surface of her voice as she deadpanned, "You want to eat me?"

Beast Boy's furrowed his eyebrows and pointed at her accusingly. "I never said that!" Now she was just trying to embarrass him. She knew how touchy this subject was!

"Oh stop." She wouldn't stop smirking though, which riled him up more and more as she continued to shamelessly stare. "If you wanted me to let you actually catch me, you should have just said so."

"Let me?" he screeched. Let him? Let him? Who did she think she was talking to? "I could catch you if I wanted," he spat hotly. "I don't need you to _let me_ do anything."

Sensing an opportunity here to save the game, Raven gathered a bit of energy to her hands. "Okay, hot shot," she drawled in monotone, "then do it." She vanished from sight as a cloud of sand shot up around them on the wings of her powers and blinded him.

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So while I was writing this I came back to edit one day and I was reading over the part after the library and BB is complaining about dumb inefficient human legs. I meant to write HUMAN LEGS. But I saw that I had actually typed _ham legs._ Somehow. How did I do that. What kind of typo is that. I almost peed my pants you guys... It was so stupid I had to keep it. Seemed liked something Beast Boy would say honestly haha.


	2. here i come

Second half.

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[...here I come]

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"If you wanted me to let you actually catch me, you should have just said so."

"Let me?" he screeched. Let him? Let him? Who did she think she was talking to? "I could catch you if I wanted," he spat hotly. "I don't need you to _let me_ do anything."

Sensing an opportunity here to save the game, Raven gathered a bit of energy to her hands. "Okay, hot shot," she drawled in monotone, "then do it." She vanished from sight as a cloud of sand shot up around them on the wings of her powers and blinded him.

Fine, then. So be it. If she wasn't gonna play fair then neither would he. As a greywolf it only took him a few seconds to sniff her out and he lunged, knocking her over flat on her back. The sand rained down around them, clearing the air, and revealed Raven with a startled look on her face as Beast Boy stood over her with his paws on her shoulders, his teeth bared and snarling, eyes cold and dark.

A beat of silence, then, he transformed back.

"Shit, I'm sorry, I-" He blinked down at her. He wasn't sure what had come over him just then. It was like his mind had gone totally blank for a second. What was wrong with him? "Did I scare you? I almost..." He almost _bit_ her. Christ.

That roused Raven from her frozen state of shock. She sat up, unbalancing him until he fell on his ass in the sand in front of her, a single sharp laugh finally busting out of her. "Oh, please. I am _not_ scared of you." The idea was so absurd she almost laughed again. Her? Scared of him? Preposterous. It was _Beast Boy_ they were talking about here. He hadn't scared her, he'd simply surprised her. "If you want to bite my head off then by all means, go for it," she added sarcastically, turning her head away to reveal her soft, pale neck. "You don't scare me."

He knew she was still messing with him. He knew that. But there was a deeper, more primal part of him that heard her words and registered her bare neck and started to fight like hell for total control of his actions. That wasn't fair, he was supposed to be the one who messed with her. He hated when she turned the tables on him. There was that barely-there grin, speaking volumes and provoking him and making fun of him and- He jutted out his lower jaw at her. She was totally taunting him!

Without thinking, he lunged forward. Again she went flat on her back, startled, his hands pressing her shoulders into the cool sandㅡbut this time the teeth bared down at her from above were human.

He narrowed his eyes. "You don't scare me either."

And she didn't, so he called her bluff. He thought it would be funny. But as he leaned in to bite her, expecting at any moment to be thrown across the beach into the ocean, he wasn't. The retaliation he was expecting never came. He paused, his bared teeth an inch from her skin, and still she made no move to push him away. If anything she turned her head more, exposing another inch of skin. This confused him. Was _she_ in turn calling _his_ bluff of _him_ calling _her_ bluff? Baffling. He was losing track of who was winning this game. How was he supposed to win when he didn't understand the rules?

At a loss, he pulled back a bit to gauge her face, his own plastered with confusion. He couldn't read her carefully blank expression at all. Why wasn't she trying to escape? Had she wanted him to catch her all along? Did she want to lose? That didn't make any sense!

"You were.. actually gonna let me bite you?" He furrowed his eyebrows at her, all innocence and confusion. He didn't understand. "I was just messing with you. I thought you were messing with me too."

Raven duly avoided his gaze, turning her head ever more slightly so that her cheek was pressing in the cool sand. Her hair splayed out behind her and mixed with the sand grains (that was gonna be hell to clean out later).

She wasn't scared of him. Honestly she just wanted to help him and this was the only way she'd ever been able to think of. She'd felt a strange surge of kinship with him when he'd confessed about this problem he had-after all, she could relate. She dealt with her own illicit urges relating to her powers with heavy, regular meditation. But then, she had always had help. That day in the park when she'd caught him chasing pigeons, it dawned on her for the first time that even though Beast Boy hadn't always been alone, he'd always been on his own when it came to his powers. Raven had grown up with people who understood her in some fashion. What did Beast Boy have? Who was ever there that understood the strange machinations of a body and mind like his, even now?

Sure he was outwardly stable, but even fireballs like Beast Boy needed help, sometimes. And if this was how she could help him then whatever. They were friends. He'd always helped her (far more than was truly necessary), so she owed him that much, right?

"If you think it'll help then just do it," she replied evenly.

But Beast Boy just stared, totally dumbstruck. Was she being serious right now? He honestly couldn't tell. Had Raven taken sarcasm and elevated it to a plane he couldn't even comprehend? Maybe. Or maybe she was being genuine. Maybe he'd caught her in one of her rare sentimental moods and she truly, simply, wanted to help him.

His face softened and she caught his eye, ruffling ever so slightly. "What?" she grumbled. "Just do it already. You're really heavy, you know."

Even though he kinda wanted to, there was no way he was gonna bite her. Even though he really wanted to. Even though she was being really nice and sincere and submissive… Maybe he would. Not enough to hurt her... just a little lovebite. His blood surged a bit and he slid his hands off her shoulders into the sand. "I don't want to bite you," he said, almost laughing at the absurdity of it. "It's too weird. Can I…" He blinked a bit of sand from his eyes; the wind was picking up again. Or was it her powers? "Can I kiss you instead?" he mumbled quickly.

She blinked a few grains of sand from her eyes, but they hung on her lashes like snowfall and as she turned to him slowly, not comprehending what he'd said, he reached up to brush them away. "Kiss me?" she repeated numbly, automatically, her mind still dancing around the words and trying to decide what they meant.

Beast Boy didn't hear the question mark though. He had zeroed in on her dark eyes, was marveling at how he'd never seen them quite so close before, was examining the smallest of amethyst freckles flecked just outside her pupils, dilated wide, and what he heard was, " _Kiss me."_

So he did. Suddenly and with gusto.

Raven gasped in surprise, but the opening of her mouth only served to invite him in-an invitation which he accepted immediately. His hands tangled in her hair and she found that she could no longer think in articulate sentences. It went something like this. _Hands, breath, hipbone… help me._ He really _was_ heavy, and she could feel something of a sand-angel forming beneath her as she weaved her arms around the back of his neck, locking them together, tilting her head to latch onto his lower lip. Her legs were driven apart as he struggled to get even closer, pressing his knee down into the sand between her thighs. The action sent a flash of blind lust though her nerves andㅡ

Wait. No. That was a flash of light.

They both opened their eyes at once and looked around for the source of the flash.

Two men in wetsuits stood at the edge of the pier's underbelly where shadow turned to sunlight. The shorter one was holding a surfboard tucked under his arm that was almost as red as the blush on his face; the taller one had his flame-patterned surfboard stuck in the sand at his side and was holding a disposable kodak camera up, grinning like this was the absolute funniest thing he'd ever seen, like Christmas had come early. Beast Boy and Raven looked at the camera, then at each other, and then Raven blew up.

More importantly, the support beams for the pier blew up.

Okay, they didn't blow up but Raven had been keeping her cool relatively well and the instant she realized that someone had just taken a picture of them like that, it all came gushing out at once. Sand went flying like rain and a series of cracks rent the air, followed by an ominous creak, followed by a ton of shouting from the newcomers. When the air cleared Beast Boy saw Raven holding up a large wooden support beam with her powers. The major crack seemed to have developed somewhere high up and the beam had fractured and was now sliding out of place. The whole pier could have come crashing down to the beach if she hadn't located the source of the fracture so quickly.

The shorter, more bashful of the two men spat out a handful of sand and choked out, "I'm so sorry!"

But the camera guy kept right on laughing in an odd pitch through his mouthful of sand. The blushy one slugged him hard on the shoulder, then started signing something angrily. _(i)_ Camera guy only laughed harder and snapped a picture of his friend's rage.

"I can't believe this," Raven muttered to herself.

Turning back to the two Titans, the blushy one desperately tried to cover for his friend. "We were out surfing and saw you. We thought you were fighting and were worried, so we came to see if we could break it up." At this point his friend signed something _(ii)_ while making a somewhat lewd expression, which caused the vocal one to choke up a little more sand. He forwent signing to shout, "Shut the fuck up, John!"

John seemed to get the point.

Beast Boy was still in somewhat of a daze, but recognized that Raven was now effectively stuck unless a plan was formed. "Rae, I'll hold this thingy up. Go get Cy, maybe he can fix this hunk of junk."

He moved in to take her place holding it up, but she scowled. "Pier repair is not really his area of expertise," she scolded. Then she sighed. "I guess we could find a temporary fix though. Sure, yeah. Hold it up. Lift with your legs though," she commanded. "Don't hurt yourself."

The blushy one lunged forward to offer his and his friend's assistance as Beast Boy grunted under the weight of the fifteen foot support beam. It extended diagonally into the ground, so he slid behind Beast Boy to rest his back and arms underneath it, beckoning John forward to do the same. John did this happily, but the minute Raven stepped into a portal he let go of the beam and began signing vigorously _(iii)_ at Beast Boy, still with that same slap-happy, This Is Hilarious grin that Beast Boy himself so often loved to wear. Wasn't so funny when the fun was at his expense.

Beast Boy watched the monologue uncomprehendingly, waited for him to finish, then said with an air of arrogance, "Hawawezi kuongea lugha ya ishara." _(a)_

Take that! John, having been trying to lip-read his response, looked nonplussed and then started to laugh again.

"Okay, uh… I'm Milo, by the way." The vocal one looked at him weirdly and then disparagingly thumb-pointed to his deaf friend. "John is an asshole, I'm really sorry about this. I refuse to translate what he just said to you because it was filthy."

Beast Boy felt himself turning from green to red. "Um, thanks? Can you get him to delete that picture?" he added. Raven was seriously going to kill him for this.

"Don't worry, he just thought it was funny. I'll make sure he burns it after he develops the roll of film," Milo added, gritting his teeth at his friend. "He's a nice guy when he's not being a dick, I promise."

"Ugh, this is going to take forever," Beast Boy complained, his feet slipping ever so slightly in the sand. He readjusted, splinters digging deep into his palms. "She better hurry."

"I didn't know you guys were… you know. A thing."

Beast Boy looked away, wishing these guys had just surfed away instead of trying to help. He did not want to be talking with two random citizens about this. Especially two random citizens with the most damning picture ever… He cringed. "We're not," he insisted.

"Oh, I see. Sorry," Milo tacked on, sensing he'd brushed a sensitive topic. "I didn't mean to…" he glanced over his shoulder at John uncertainly, who rolled his eyes and immediately launched into another frenetic speech _(iv)_ with his arms and hands.

"John, it's not our business," Milo hissed back.

"What? What's he saying?" Beast Boy leaned around Milo, forgetting that he wouldn't be able to understand John even if he could see him properly, and then lurching back into place as the whole beam slipped an inch.

Milo cursed under his breath at John, who looked somewhat pissed off now instead of amused, and they had another brief but intense wordless exchange. _(v)_ Then Milo looked up at Beast Boy, rolling his eyes. He translated hesitantly. "John says 'you don't just mess around with a girl like that.'"

Righteous anger swelled in Beast Boy's chest. He had half a mind to drop this beam on John's head and squish him into pulp. "A girl like _what?_ " he barked at John, exaggerating the words so John could read his furious retort. "What the hell is that supposed to mean, asshole? You can mind your own damn business. Raven's the most amazing, most selfless, powerful, noble-"

Beast Boy and Milo both buckled with a grunt as John let go of his part of the beam again to answer Beast Boy's wrath with a series of frantic gestures. _(vi)_

Milo watched plaintively, and then said, "Oh!" with an air of pride. "My mistake. He didn't mean 'you don't mess around with _a girl like that_.' He meant 'you don't _mess around_ with a girl like that.' He says _you're_ the asshole and to have some decency. Man up or screw off." Milo almost laughed, then regained the look of contrition. "His words, not mine."

Beast Boy bit his lip. _Oh shit._ Was he an asshole? He wavered under their stares, wishing Raven would come back already and relieve him of this torture. At the same time he was hit with the urge to spill his entire life story to these two. Maybe they'd know what to do.

But it was his first wish that came true.

"Oh thank god," they all said together as Raven stepped through a portal dragging what looked like the entire tool shop.

She refused to bring Cyborg back here on the chance that he got ahold of that wretched camera, so together they bound the beam in steel zip ties to its neighbors and supported it from below with old pipes and a hundred miles of duct tape. When it seemed sturdy enough to hold at least for awhile, Milo volunteered himself and John to go topside and find a security guard on the pier to alert about the damage, that way proper repairs could get underway.

As they turned to go, Raven still seething with hatred so strong that the sand around her whipped to life in a tiny dust devil, John hesitated by his beached surfboard and then turned back to Beast Boy with a glint in his eye. He eyed Raven pointedly but motioned to Beast Boy, a quick meaningful gesture _(vii)_ that Milo didn't need to translate. Beast Boy didn't need to speak ASL to get the point. _Stop messing around._

Beast Boy rolled his eyes and fought the urge to slug him as Milo had done earlier. He wondered if Milo slugged him often. He'd bet money. "Ujumbe kupokea!" _(b)_ Beast Boy growled, and John hit him with two thumbs up before snatching up his surfboard to run after Milo.

John in turn didn't need to speak swahili to understand what Beast Boy had meant. _Message received._

"I think his friend's gonna make him delete that picture," Beast Boy offered with embarrassment, running after Raven to catch up with her. She was already thirty feet away, nearing the water.

"I don't care," she lied, about more than just the picture. She cared so much. Damn. "So… did it help?"

"What?" he watched her removing her shoes at the water's edge, barely hearing her.

She stepped into the next shallow wave as it consumed the sand, eyeing him with exasperation. "Did that help you or not?"

Understanding washed over him and he couldn't decide whether to laugh in her face or shake her by the shoulders in frustration. In the end he just sat down and let the next wave wash over his legs, drenching his jeans. "Raven," he sighed. She was so… innocent sometimes, for someone who was supposed to end the world at one point. "That wasn't why I kissed you."

"Oh?"

He could sense her staring but he focused instead on the deepening sand crab holes in front of him, and fought the brief urge to follow them into the cold world below. "But… yeah," he admitted. "It helped." It was true; the urge was totally exercised from his system. "Thanks."

"Maybe… Maybe we could keep the game going, then. Now that we found a version that works."

Shocked, Beast Boy looked up in time to see a positively mischievous look on her face as she overlooked the sea. Maybe she wasn't so innocent after all. Beast Boy smirked. "Yeah," he agreed. "But uhh… I hope I don't have to wait till then to kiss you again."

Butterflies shot through Raven's chest at the thought of repeating that heated episode. Despite the fact that she wasn't dressed to swim and the breeze had a bite to it, she sat next to him in the shallow water, avoiding the question until she heard a mysterious crinkling of paper.

"Thanks for the soda, by the way," he mumbled. "Got you something too." He'd pulled some kind of glossy paper out of his shirt pocket and was unfolding it… oh. She bit her lip. He offered her the postcard and she snatched it up, feeling naked under that unabashed stare of his. "I guess there's a lot of beaches in the world, besides this one," he prattled, eyeing the crinkled postcard. "I can see what you like about it. It's really something."

Something in his voice told her he wasn't really talking about Ireland, and she had to look away again, out to sea to try and compose her thoughts. A heavy fog was gathering in the distance and may even reach the shore by evening. Autumn had settled on the city a bit late this year, but as the day stretched on it and never grew warmer, it was finally starting to seem like October. She opened her mouth to say something. She wasn't sure what. How does a person say " _you can kiss me whenever you want"_ without sounding hopelessly smitten?

Beast Boy seemed to intuit the words on her face, however, because he was already leaning in. Raven's lips hung half-parted, still trying to find even a single word to convey what she wanted to say, and as his lips brushed hers she finally found it-the word that had been tickling the back of her mind for the last minute. "October."

Pulling away, Beast Boy rewound. October? What? He voiced the thought. "Uh… what."

"October!" she groaned. "Oh, no, no, it's the first day of October."

Beast Boy's hands flew to his face. "Oh, shitmuffins. We forgot about decorating day! Starfire must be heartbroken!"

"This is your fault," Raven blamed, rising deftly to her feet. "I refuse to take her wrath on this, which is going to be never-ending."

"My fault? You're the one with a calendar on your wall! You think I remember what day it is? I don't even remember what I ate for breakfast this morning. You have to take the heat for this one, I took the blame the last time we missed something."

"But she'll make me do unspeakable things," Raven hissed, thinking of the wretched shopping mall trips of forgiveness. Star could never stay mad at Beast Boy, so it only made sense that he take the fall. "No way."

"Yes way!"

Stubborn idiot. Raven's temper flared and she reared back with a bit of energy and redirected the next wave to splash all over him.

He gagged loudly and fell over backwards, and then shot her a devious look that she couldn't quite place as he shook some of the drops from his arms. "You should no-o-ot have done that," he snickered.

No, she should not have. But it was too late.

.

.

When they arrived home it was well past midday. They were both soaked to the bone and shivering as they stepped through the portal into the common room, and Beast Boy immediately lunged for the wool blanket on the couch. Neither took much notice of the newly decorated space, of the oodles of spiderwebs and crows and pumpkins and purple-orange string lights. The other three rose from the dining table to greet them, but Raven was already crossing the room toward the exit, desperate for a warm shower and willing to use it as an excuse to avoid Starfire's despair.

Cyborg shouted after her, "How'd the date go?"

"Good," she said, and the door shut behind her.

"Ha!" he shouted, convinced he'd just pulled some kind of master jedi mind trick. He hissed to an astonished Robin and Starfire, "I told y'all they were on a date!"

Robin was still unconvinced, and took his turn at the reigns by waltzing up to Beast Boy on the couch and tugging away his blanket. "You missed decorating," he accused. "Starfire was really hurt. I hope your _date_ was worth it."

Beast Boy escaped into the kitchen as a bat, transforming back in front of the fridge to rifle through it for something to eat. He pulled out an orange but before he could peel it he was assailed by Starfire.

He opened his mouth to apologize, but she cut him off with a squeal of delight and gripped his shoulders so hard his knees buckled. "Were you and friend Raven really on a date?"

He blushed, eyeing Rob and Cy angrily where they sat on the couch intent on a racing game and pretending not to listen. "Why do you guys think we were on a date?"

Starfire released him to tap her fingertips together. "Cyborg said…"

"Cy!" he screamed indignantly.

"What?" Cyborg shouted back without looking. "Come off it, you seriously expect us to believe you guys play _hide and seek_ once a month? You? And Raven? Right, and I play chess with Stephen Hawking on Thursdays."

"We do," he muttered angrily to Starfire. "But uh… yeah," he whispered, softly enough so only Starfire would hear. "This time it kinda was a date. Our secret, okay?"

Starfire screeched in a pitch high enough for only dogs to hear, but softly enough that only Beast Boy cringed. "Okay!" she parroted with enthusiasm. "I am no longer upset that you did the ditching on the day of decorating, and in fact I'm glad! What glorious news. Will there be another again soon?"

Beast Boy tossed the orange up and caught it in his other hand, too embarrassed to answer the question with the resounding ' _I sure fuckin' hope so'_ that was reverberating in his skull. What if he jinxed it? "Hey do you know how to use this?"

Nodding, Starfire took the teapot from him, and grinned omnipotently as she went to the sink to fill it. "You have decided to test the merits of tea drinking?"

"No." His heart hammered as he thought over what he was about to do. "It's just that I ruined Raven's coffee earlier so I wanted to make up for it. What kind of tea do you think I should make her?"

"Let's see…" Starfire opened up the smallest cupboard and began to list off the tea boxes that were stacked inside. "There's Mojito Mint, Yerba Mate, English Breakfast, Ginseng, Cinnamon Chai, Oolong… Ooh, this one looks promising." She nicked the box and read from the back. "Bermuda Black Tea. High caffeine content. Get shit done, son." She giggled at what she was pretty sure was a swear word, since she was pretty sure tea packaging did not usually come printed with swear words. Where on earth did Raven purchase this? She read on: "For days when you're not there to mess around. Tea Time Time Zone Incorporated. There is also a small picture of a race car which seems to be ablaze here on the front, surely to indicate the right temperature at which to steep the tea."

She showed him the logo and Beast Boy nodded patiently, rather enjoying Starfire's hilariously thorough description. The car was indeed on fire. A little driver seemed to be trying to climb out the window to safety. _Heheh._ _Safe-tea_. Better log that stellar pun away for the deliverance of the tea to Raven.

"Copyright pending due to various lawsuits in progress," Starfire noted on the backside. "Do not drink if pregnant or affected by chronic heart conditions or if you have a lawyer on retainer. Contains: camellia sinensis, cinnamon, ginger root, and-" She squinted at the box. "What is this word?"

Beast Boy leaned over and shrugged. "Psilocybin extract? No clue what that is. Whatever, it's not important. I'm sold. Let's do this one. He set his orange aside to inspect the box as Starfire lit the stovetop. _For days when you're not there to mess around._

He saw John's smirk in the back of his mind. Shut the fuck up, John.

But John was right of course, which he was reminded of as Raven answered her bedroom door looking radiant and refreshed after her midday shower, and graced him with a hesitant smile as she saw the steaming teacup in his hand. _You don't waste time when girls like this are on your doorstep. You make them tea and tell them you love them._

Which is what he did.

* * *

.

.

 **Translations:**

(i) ASL

Milo: _Look what you did, you startled her and now the whole pier might collapse! You can't take pictures of people while they're, uh...while they're... Stop laughing!_

 _._

(ii) ASL

 _J_ ohn: _I guess we can't help after all, unless he wants the condom in my wallet._

 _._

(a) Swahili

Beast Boy: _I can't speak sign language._

 _._

(iii) ASL

John: _What a catch! I mean literally. We saw you chasing her all the way in from town, man. You guys must be into some kinky shit._

 _._

(iv) ASL

John: _What do you mean you're not? Did I misread him, Milo? You can't just... But it's Raven. Like, The Raven. She is like... The One Who Knocks. You don't mess around with a girl like that, you hopeless frog!_

 _._

(v) ASL

Milo: _I'm not translating that, John._

John: _Translate it._

Milo: _No!_

John: _Translate it or I'm gonna tell Laura that the real reason we missed the flight home from Canada was because you got your head stuck in a fence._

Milo: _Why are you like this._

 _._

(vi) ASL

John: _I know she is, asshole. That girl is not just anyone, she's one in a billion. That's why you don't mess around with her. Man up and get serious or screw off._

 _._

(vii) ASL

John: _Stop messing around._

 _._

(b) Swahili

Beast Boy: _Message received._

 _._

 _._

* * *

This was super fun to write. Got to create all sorts of minor characters and it was a laugh riot all around. John and Milo were particular favs of mine, those rascals. Amani the coffee guy is based on a coffee guy I met at Grand Central in NYC. He was so sweet I just had to make him a character somewhere, and this was the perfect place to do it.

Fun fact, psilocybin is the main chemical in magic mushrooms lmao. Idk I thought it'd be funny, I'm sure she bought it on accident from some shop overseas... Well at any rate, the aftermath of this one-shot is a story for another day hahaha. And by that I mean I'm never gonna write it so have fun imagining it.

P.S. I'm so ready for October!


End file.
